The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-07-09
The Price Of F[ccdOD).
BY JENNIE PORTER ARNOLD.

There were indications of a lomes- tic storm brewing as Richard Hayes entered his house at seven o'clock one fine evening in June; his little three year old May ran eagerly to meet him, and baby Harry stretched out dimpled hands and prattled glad welcome, but his wife's face showed that no pleasant greeting awaited him from her.
 ''So you have condescended to put in an appearance ut last!" she said an- grily. Il concluded you intended to stay all night watching that silly base- ball game and guzzling beer"
 Richards face flushed painfully at the last taunt, so wholly undeserved Although harsh words were becoming of almost daily occurrence in his once happy home, he felt them most keenlv now as they were uttered in the pres ence of an intimate friend, who had never before seen these too frequent outbursts of anger.
 "Well, come to supper" Eva said ungraciously, "you have kept us waiting an hour, and Eve no doubt Clarice is half-starved."
 Clarice protested pleasantly, and Richard made courteous excuses for his delay, but Eva was too angry and impatient to heed them. Her sharp words and unkind reproaches marred all the pleasure there might have been at her neatly spread supper table.
 
 capped from the unpleasant home at mosphere and took his little ones out for a walk.
 To Clarice the whole scene had been most painful. Slight indications of growing unhappiness between her friend and her husband had been be- trayed before, but nothing like this. And it had been such pleasant home. She remembered how proud Eva had been of her handsome, easy tempered husband, how devotedly she had seemed to love him in those early days. She recalled the tender condolences Eva had poured into her ears of his patience and tenderness in her days of illness, his constant kindness and gen. erous devotion; but now, in her impa- tience and ill-temper, every thing was wrong-petty faults and toibles, that would have passed unnoticed in the old days, were dwelt upon harshly and magnifed into serious defects.
 A merry, thoughtless girl, fond of society and gay pleasures, Eva had taken upon herself the duties of wife and mother without a thought of how heavy the burden might prove to be.
 For two or three years she bore them remarkably well; she was very proud of her handsome husband, her pleasant home and her bright, spright- ly little girl, whom everyone admired and petted. But with the coming of the second child her cares increased. the household labors grew heavier. and her confinement to home closer. She never realized how largely the nervous irritation, which made her so cross and lt-finding, was caused by these things.
 Confined to her close, warm rooms day after day, with rarely dny other society than her little ones, who shared her irritability, the trouble had in- creased rapidly.
 From an occasional impatient word, it had grown to sharp, angry re- breaches and constant fault-finding, until Richard was beginning to seek pleasure in the society of friends out side, only to be met with still harsher words each time on his return. Thoughtless and ignorant of the laws of health, it never occurred to either that ride or walk each day, a few hours in the open air, would do more to cure all this trouble than would either sermons or good resolutions.
 The day of Clarice's visit every thing had gone wrong. It had been very warm, and Eva had spent many hours in her close, hot kitchen, over the iron ing and baking, while May--mischiev- ous little puss-had been unusually troublesome, scarcely out of one piece of mischief before she was into an- other, keeping the baby in constant fretfulness by her teasing, until Eva's patience was quite exhausted without the additional vexation of having her husband take advantage of half holi- day to attend base- ball game and de- lay his return beyond the usual hour.
 70, if girls only knew when they were we'll of, they would never marry" she said bitterly, as she seated herself at the parlor window with her friend. "Just look at the easy life